Tiger joining Obama for golf course renovation

ATLANTA — Dustin Johnson went the last three hours over 13 holes without hitting from the fairway and still manged to hang on to the lead Saturday after two rounds at the TOUR Championship. Johnson could at least see his entire golf ball from the first cut on the par-5 18th at East Lake, setting up a two-putt birdie for an even-par 70 and a one-shot lead lead over Sungjae Im. RELATED: Full leaderboard | McIlroy begins fatherhood with 64 in Round 1 | JT thrives in pursuer role The big picture going into the final two rounds is all about opportunity. As well as Johnson has been playing — two runner-up finishes and an 11-shot victory in his last three starts — there was a chance he could have started with that two-shot lead and created some big separation. Instead, nine players are separated by five shots heading for the Labor Day finish. Im, the budding star from South Korea whose game had gone lukewarm coming out of the three-month shutdown, birdied three of his last four holes for a 64 and will be in the final group with Johnson. Xander Schauffele, who won the TOUR Championship as a rookie in 2017, ran off three straight birdies late in his round for a 65 and was two shots behind. Another big move came from PGA champion Collin Morikawa, whose 66 put him in range. And it took some help from the leading players who stumbled on an East Lake course that punished mistakes. Johnson has rounds of 67-70, and along with starting at 10 under because of his No. 1 seed, was at 13-under par. He hit only two fairways — the first hole and the fifth, where both times he made par. He still managed a birdie on No. 8 when he chipped in from 40 feet and the final hole, one of the two par 5s at East Lake. Rory McIlroy, who managed only two birdies, lost ground at the end with a shot that laser cameras estimated at 85 feet, which didn’t account for how far it sunk to the bottom of the lake. He tried to reach the 18th green from the thick rough just through the fairway, and it topped out into the water. That led to bogey and a 71. Justin Thomas pulled within one shot until he couldn’t convert birdie chances and then drove so far left on the 18th that he had to pitch out sideways, leading to bogey and a 71. Jon Rahm again was keeping stride with Johnson until he found the water off the tee at the par-3 15th and made double bogey, followed by a wild drive that led to bogey on the 16th. He shot a 74, nine shots worse than his opening round. That left him four shots behind at 9 under, along with Morikawa and Tyrrell Hatton, who had a 66 and spoke for the field when he said hitting from the rough “is a complete lottery.” That’s what was so maddening for Thomas, who felt like he was hitting it well enough from tee to green. He ranks last in the 30-man field in putting, which would not surprise him. “I should have never shot over par today with how well I played,” he said. “I just made absolutely nothing.” That much was evident when his 6-foot par putt swirled in and out of the cup, and Thomas gave it a sarcastic thumbs-up. McIlroy said he tried to take on too much with his shot that he duffed into the water, but he didn’t appear too shaken. This was more about the leaderboard than perspective on life from being a new father. “It doesn’t look like I’m going to lose any ground today anyway, which is some sort of consolation,” he said. Rahm was frustrated as ever, mainly because he couldn’t capitalize when he was in the fairway and felt it was another round at East Lake that would cost him. Now, however, he’s still only four shots behind with 36 holes remaining and the FedExCup still very much up for grabs. “The closest I came from the fifth hole on to make a birdie was that bunker shot on 18,” he said of his third shot from behind the green. “That’s the best look I had all day. It’s just one of those days. But like you said, the mentality is right now we’ve played two days of the tournament. I’m four back going into the weekend. Anything can happen.”

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The 34 official LPGA Tour events in the 2021 season offer a record $76.45 million in prize money.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jordan Spieth has displayed a new skill set in 2017, and it’s one that we still have to get accustomed to. His ballstriking has been the key to his success, while his trusty putter has failed to live up to his standards. That was the case again Thursday as Spieth began his pursuit of the career Grand Slam at Quail Hollow. This is a course that requires players to drive the ball well, and Spieth leaned heavily on the longest club in his bag. It was the shortest one that frustrated him, though. “It was just the putter,â€� Spieth said after a first-round 72 that left him five shots behind leader Thorbjorn Olesen. Spieth had 32 putts Thursday, and didn’t make a putt longer than 5 feet. “If you told me I was going to hit my driver the way that I did today, I would have definitely thought I shot a few under par,â€� Spieth said. “I can’t putt any worse than I did today.” This was only the fifth time this season that Spieth had 32 or more putts. It was his fifth-worst performance in Strokes Gained: Putting (-2.15 strokes) this season, as well. If Spieth is to become the youngest player ever to complete the career Grand Slam – and this is his lone opportunity to break Tiger Woods’ record – then Spieth will have to win in a way that is unprecedented for him. Spieth has never finished in the top 10 in a major after shooting over par in the first round. His best finish was a T11 at this year’s Masters, where he shot a first-round 75 after making a quadruple-bogey at the 15th hole. He battled to within two shots of the lead after 54 holes, but shot another 75 in the last round. Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, used that tournament as inspiration when Spieth arrived at the seventh tee Thursday at 3 over par. “He goes, ‘Grind these last few. You had a chance to win Augusta and we were in a worse position at this point,’â€� Spieth said. “And he was spot on.â€� They knew birdie opportunities awaited, at Quail Hollow’s par-5 seventh and the short, par-4 eighth hole. There was still the possibility to turn in an even-par scorecard. “If I were to finish par, par, par, I would have thrown myself out of the tournament,â€� Spieth said. Instead, he made two birdies and a solid par at the final hole. His rally started with a 296-yard drive into the fairway at the seventh hole. His playing partners, Brooks Koepka and Sergio Garcia, had to lay-up after missing the fairway, but Spieth was able to hit a hybrid that just trickled through the green and set-up a two-putt birdie. A 290-yard drive into the fairway on the next hole set up a 57-yard approach that he knocked stiff. Spieth hit 10 of 14 fairways while averaging 298.8 yards on all tee shots. He gained 2.03 strokes off the tee Thursday, his second-best performance in that stat this season. He also hit 12 of 18 greens. “If I would have shot 1 over and didn’t strike it well and everything was average, it would have been fine. But when I had the chances that I had and I just couldn’t get the ball to go in on the greens, that is when I get the most frustrated I can get out there,â€� Spieth said. He is in the midst of the best ballstriking season of his career, leading the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green. Earlier this year, he said that his playoff victory at the Travelers Championship was the first time that he won on the PGA TOUR without putting well. His Open Championship win, the one that set the stage for the career Grand Slam, will be remembered for the long putts he holed down the stretch, but he also wasn’t content with his putting performance at Royal Birkdale. He ranks 47th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, his worst ranking in that statistic in his career. Spieth, who teed off on No. 10 on Thursday, missed a downhill, 8-foot birdie putt at the par-3 13th. He drove the green at the next hole, but his 120-foot eagle putt rolled off the back of the green, leading to par. Spieth also three-putted the sixth and seven holes from just off the green. He missed 10-foot par putts on both holes. “He didn’t make as many putts as he usually does. I feel like that 15- to 20-foot range, usually see him make a bunch of putts. He just didn’t make any,â€� said Koepka, who shot 68. “He had a couple putts that he just ran 10, 15 feet by. But he struck it really well.â€� Spieth knows he has ground to make up. He has started with 68 or better in all three of his major wins. He held the 36-hole and 54-hole leads in all three victories, as well. “I know I’m still in it, but I know that tomorrow’s round becomes that much more important. … I’ve got to make up ground,” Spieth said. “If I’m five back at the start of the day, I’ve got to be less than five back after Friday to really feel like I can play the way this golf course needs to be played and still be able to win.”

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